fêting the forgotten; curating the uncultivated

Drive by

Drive by: We cruise these sites fairly often. Fun for stay-at-homes!

Bringatrailer: terrific aggregation of interesting cars for sale from a variety of sources including EBay, Craig’s List, auctions, etc. Offerings run the gamut from 50’s American iron, Italian exotics, racecars, etc. From Packards to Porsches, they cover the waterfront but the truth is their selections skew European but who are we to sniff at a “fully sorted” BMW 2002tii or a showroom fresh Volvo 240 with over 600,000 miles on the odometer. There’s car flesh, offered fresh daily, of every possible origin. We say bring ‘em on! www.bringatrailer.com

OldCarsParked: Straight outta Portlandia, it’s a very straightforward photo documentation site that covers just what it says it covers: Old. Cars. Parked. Japanese, domestic, VW busses, whatever people park and, presumably drive. We dig this tacit celebration of the non-phenomenal. www.oldcarsparked.com

Hooniverse: These guys are all over the map. New car reviews, car shows, wild rides, crazy pix. Heartening to know that that at least some millennials still spend time thinking about cars. www.hooniverse.com

Autoweek: Despite the name, they post daily goodies. Most relates to major brand product introductions, projections, road tests, car shows, etc. but they do dig out vintage ads, post some interesting videos and offer a “one lap of the web” feature that drills down for some compelling content you might otherwise not see. Good way to keep current if that’s your bent. www.autoweek.com

Automobile: We’re very partial to this one since it’s the website of Automobile Magazine where we’ve contributed pieces over the past 20 or so years (time flies, right?) They do what all the car mages do but better, especially delightful is Robert Cumberford’s design analysis and Jamie Kitman’s “Noise, Vibration and Harshness” column. It’s a great way to dig out some of the “Collectible Classic” feature pieces they run over the years… what you need to know about the ’63 Buick Riviera, 1934 Chrysler Airflow, ’66 VW Squareback and so many, many more. Get right to the meat of the matter: http://www.automobilemag.com/features/collectible_classic/

Sports Car Market: Keith Martin’s pioneering auction report magazine has a terrific website with auction reports, feature pieces, etc. Just another way to geek out and see what great old cars are being sold for on a constantly updated basis. www.sportscarmarket.com

Hemmings: This is where old (ok, “vintage”) cars are celebrated, traded, bought, sold, restored, venerated and debated as nowhere else. Feature pieces, thousands of cars for sale and an event calendar that can tell you if there’s a Buick meet happening somewhere near you are what you’ll find and lots more. www.hemmings.com

JayLenosGarage: Let’s say you’re obsessed with cars and NBC built you a no expenses-spared website so you could post all kinds of piece, videos, photos of cars that have caught your attention. If you’re Jay Leno, you’ve done just that. While he’s slated for replacement at 11:30 PM, The Chin is still in when it comes to cars. Lots of fun pieces that remind you that whatever your vehicular obsession may be, Leno has been there and done that. www.jaylenosgarage.com